House Hearing: Abusive and Deadly Seclusion and Restraint in Schools

Ann Gaydos, mother of a victim, testifies at a hearing examining the
abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint on May 19, 2009.

A new government report
released today found hundreds of allegations that schoolchildren have
been abused, and some even died, as a result of inappropriate uses of
seclusion and restraint in classrooms. These abusive practices were
used disproportionately on children with disabilities.

The
U.S. Government Accountability Office, which conducted the first
government investigation specifically into schools’ use of these
practices at the request of U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA),
the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, testified
about its findings at a committee hearing today. Their report examined
ten of these cases in detail; in four of them, these abuses were fatal.
Two parents of victims in these cases also testified, including a
mother whose foster son died as a result.

“GAO’s report shows that in too many cases, a child’s life wound up
being threatened even though that child was not a threat to others,”
said Miller. “This behavior, in some instances, looks like torture. The
current situation is unacceptable and cannot continue.”

Seclusion,
as the term is used in this context, means the act of involuntarily
confining a student in an area by himself. Restraint is used to
restrict an individual’s freedom of movement. As GAO explained today,
restraint can become fatal when it blocks air to the lungs. In some of
the cases examined, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee
cords were used to retrain or isolate young children.

Unlike in
hospitals, other health care facilities and most non-medical
community-based facilities that receive federal funding, there are
currently no federal laws that restrict the use of seclusion and
restraint in public or private schools. State regulation and oversight
varies greatly. Nineteen states have no laws governing the appropriate
use of seclusion and restraint in schools.

“Cedric struggled as
he was being held in his chair, so the teacher put him in a face down,
or in a prone restraint, and sat on him,” said Toni Price,
whose son Cedric was killed after a teacher restrained him and laid on
top of him for trying to leave his classroom. “He struggled and said
repeatedly: ‘I can’t breathe.’ Shortly after that, he stopped speaking
and he stopped struggling.”

In half of the cases GAO studied,
the teachers or school staff involved with the abuse continued to
teach, either in the same school system or a new one.

Although
Cedric’s death was ruled a homicide, the teacher involved continues to
teach students with disabilities, only now in Virginia, a different
state than where Cedric was killed. GAO said today that they have referred the case to the Virginia Department of Education. Today the American Association of School Administrators announced that the school district is investigating the case and the teacher has been placed on leave.

GAO
also found that, more often than not, teachers and staff who used
seclusion and restraint in abusive ways had not been properly trained.
These practices were often being used as a routine disciplinary tactic,
rather than in response to an emergency.

Ann Gaydos was never told that teachers were using restraint tactics on her daughter, Paige, until she came home with bruises:

“Within
a week at her new school, she came home bruised and told me, ‘Mommy, my
teacher hurt me and I couldn’t breathe.’ We were shocked that we had
not been informed by the school of this use of force that had injured
our daughter, and that such force could so easily be used for something
as small as playing with a loose tooth in time out.”

A school
aide who came forward to warn Paige’s parents that this abuse was
happening to other students was ostracized by fellow staff.

It is impossible to determine the full extent to which seclusion and
restraint practices are used in schools because there is no centralized
reporting system. The few states that do collect data suggest these
methods are used frequently. During the last school year alone, Texas
and California documented over 33,000 incidents in which seclusion and
restraint were used on students in public and private schools.

“Since
these reports are often the result of parent complaints or media
reports, we do not know how many times these procedures are
inappropriately employed with students,” said Dr. Reece L. Peterson,
a Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska. “Yet
there does appear to be a substantial number of these situations, and
they appear to be scattered across the United States.”

Yesterday, the Obama administration indicated it plans to meet with stakeholders to address these abuses.

Miller said that today’s hearing makes clear that legislation is needed to keep students safe.

“We
plan to look at this closely, with the Obama administration, to
determine whether federal guidance is warranted. In light of this
report, we encourage leaders of all of our nation’s schools who are
working hard every day to educate our kids to immediately review their
policies regarding restraint and seclusion.”

1 Comment

I have a 10 year old son who is diagnosed as having epilepsy, bipolar (R/O paranoid schizo-affective disorder), OCD, chronic constipation/abdominal muscle spasms/enuresis, ADHD, tourette's syndrome, sensory integration dysfunction, and PDD NOS. Just days after his 8th birthday he was sent via emergency detention to Mendota Hospital in Madison after attempting suicide. He also had homicidal ideation (he thought he should kill me because I wasn't doing my job as a mom- to protect him from the "monsters"). Prior to his ED, he attended Barton school in West Bend where he received special education services. When being released from Mendota after 6 months, he was placed (without consultation or agreement from me) at Great Expectations alternative classroom in the basement of the West Bend school district office building. He was there with a few children that were several years older than he was (kids placed there for juvenile delinquency essentially). He was originally given no opportunity for physical activity throughout the day and we had to find where the law stated that PE was required even in an alternative setting and have DPI enforce it. It was not a therapeutic learning environment what-so-ever. In fact, the teacher had a bad cop approach and called the police for conduct that was a manifestation of his disabilities (the very reason he needed special education). Have you ever seen your 8 year old child leaving school handcuffed in the back of a squad car? It was a very difficult time for us. I had to hire a lawyer to have the charges dropped after an intensive psych eval that the county had to pay for. He is a kid who thrives on the firm and consistent yet loving approach. My son was secluded and restrained much of the school day and learned very little academically (especially last school year). He had 3 hospitalizations in West Allis that were the direct result of school triggered behaviors (on one occasion he TRIED to have himself arrested because he said that he would rather be in jail than in that school). That is when I withdrew him from public school after the hospitalization and started home schooling him (May of last year). I am home schooling him now as the district did not inform me that virtual school was a form of school choice for him when we had the window of opportunity for open enrollment in February. The school district refused to pay for day school at the Oconomowoc Developmental Training Center (which was recommended at discharge from Mendota and he was approved eligible for after an ODTC evaluation done while he was still in Madison). I went to the capital on WCCF advocacy day this year to promote my strong feelings on seclusion and restraint (especially in schools). Why is it that mental hospitals have more restrictions and reporting guidelines on S&R than our public schools? Where are the reporting and recording laws? I could not agree more that there is a large need for this S&R/PBIS bill to be passed into law. I understand that as parents we have the right to approve or disapprove of S&R in the IEPS for our children, but what option do we really have when school officials tell you that the behavior plan needs to have either the agreement to allow S&R by the teachers, come to pick him up each time, or agree to police intervention and have your child tied up in the juvenile justice system? You treat a child like a criminal and THEY WILL ACT LIKE A CRIMINAL. My son had an IEP, but the school did not follow through with focusing on the strengths to help build on the weaknesses or focus on triggers to help avoid the escalation. Instead, they seemed to focus on punishments. They took away meals when they felt his behavior was unacceptable. When I brought this to the attention of their superiors, they then allowed him to eat, but off the floor. They isolated him from people. He spent most of his day in a small cubby from floor to ceiling with a opening that the teacher's aid blocked while he was in there. They tried sending his school work home for me to teach him as "homework" when he refused to do it for them during the day. They developed a system for a while where they would CALL me every time he acted out (and said it was there new policy). He was wetting himself at school and one day he was made to ride home in the van with the wet pants (their thinking was that he would be embarrassed and not do it again). He also pooped himself one day and the teacher told me that he did it on purpose. She made him write me a note in her words saying that he did it on purpose and then made him throw the clothes away. This after she knew that he had a history of both enuresis (for which he saw a pediatrician) and bowel problems (for which he saw a gastroenterologist and took medication). I personally saw them drag him across the room on the floor to "put him in time out". I saw them pin his leg under a carrell and I heard him say that it hurt, but they continued to do it and said he was fine. I also heard him say that he could not breathe and they said that if he could talk, he could breathe (he has a documented history of anxiety and panic attacks). Another time he was hyperventilating and the teacher told him that it was good that he was making more of an effort to breathe. I asked over and over for them not to use prone restraint, but they used it enough that it left a scar on the front of his shoulder. He states that on one occasion an aid held him down with the heels of her shoes digging into his thighs and on another occasion they used pain association to lift his hands up his back higher and higher as his behaviors escalated. He did report the incidents to his counselor and showed the bruising on his arms/legs and marks to his head from pushing his face down to the ground. The time out area was not safe. It did not provide any padding for protection. At one time there was an electrical outlet in it. Another time he was left unsupervised in there long enough that he was later found to have written all over the walls. I understand about No Child Left Behind and I think it is great that special needs kids are integrated in our schools. I think it helps both the general population of kids as well as the kids with challenges, but a regular classroom is not for everyone. My son requires a low key-low stimuli classroom with positive behavioral interventions and focus on triggers/intervention vs punishment. He needs a small group of kids his age to help him learn social skills. He needs a more regulated sensory diet (not just at home but at school as well). He is entitled to FAPE, but my interpreation of appropriate and theirs is VERY different. I got CESA 6 as well as WI Family Ties involved in advocating for me to help my son, but could not stand to see him endure the post traumatic effects of that classroom setting one more day. When he was at Mendota I felt the need to enlist the help of WI Family Ties to help me fight for my rights to family centered care and I did not give up until that was achieved. I feel as though by home schooling him now, I have given up and now there will just be another child/family with the same frustrations we had. Please tell me what more I can do! I do have 3 other children in the West Bend school syste, right now, so I have been afraid that speaking up may very likely make things difficult for them. I know that nobody would admit to doing these things. I am sure we will be called liars, but maybe if we speak up, other people will then feel more comfortable to come forward as well. I have read all the DPI excuses that they are already taking special education funding from the general education pot. I also know that Obama earmarked more money in this new budget for soecial education funding. When asking Pat Strachota what the state planned to do with that money, she more or less replied that they were going to hold onto it for now as it would be all they are getting for 2 years. There is a huge unment need in our special education system and we should just sit and wait for what our children need because it's all there is for the next 2 years? What about now? What are we going to do about this now?

Frankie Mastrangelo is the moderator for both the Justice For All (JFA) national email listerv as well as for the JFActivist blog. She is also an organizer for the American Association of People with Disabilities in Washington, D.C.